Governor Put Aide In Key Role

September 05, 1985|By Daniel Egler.

A tired James Reilly headed out Wednesday night for dinner and a ``couple of margaritas`` and then planned a long night`s sleep.

Without rest since 7 a.m. Tuesday, Reilly, Gov. James Thompson`s chief of staff, had been in negotiations with the Chicago Board of Education, the unions representing the city`s teachers and other employees, and the Chicago School Finance Authority.

At 4 a.m. Wednesday, Reilly was positive that a settlement in the 2-day-old teachers strike had been reached.

``Once that was done, it was just a long frustrating process of dotting i`s and crossing t`s,`` Reilly said Wednesday night. ``Some of the hardest negotiating came in the middle of the night.``

One attorney representing one of the unions involved in the negotiations lauded Reilly for his efforts. ``The guy was very professional. He was not too obtrusive and all along clearly understood what the parties` problems were.`` On Tuesday night, Reilly stood in the middle of the negotiations at a Chicago hotel, his legs crossed, his tie knotted tightly. Occasionally he glanced at a sheaf of papers in his hands.

As Thompson`s chief aide, Reilly shuttled between rooms as the school board and teachers reached an agreement, halting a strike and sending the city`s 430,000 public school children back to their classrooms Thursday.

Reilly also admitted there was some risk to the Republican governor getting involved in the latest of the labor problems affecting the Chicago school system.

``If we had gotten this involved and not gotten a settlement, there would have been some criticism,`` he said. ``But they were already on strike. The worst that would have happened is that we would have failed too.``

Despite a 12-year career in politics and state government, including a stint in the General Assembly when he was the leading Republican voice on the House Education and Appropriations Committees, Reilly is a relative unknown outside central Illinois and the major lobbying groups in Springfield.

But he has the trust of the governor.

``He has the authority and the governor`s confidence,`` said an aide to Thompson. ``The chief of staff knows everything that is going on. He knows just how far to go.``

Earlier this week, even Thompson declined to discuss the school talks because he had not talked to Reilly.

``I`m not going to interrupt any meeting,`` the governor said as Reilly was engrossed in the negotiations.

Normally mild-mannered, Reilly has been known to use his temper to his best advantage, bringing together people who are unnecessarily holding up a solution to an agreement, according to his friends.

As a Downstater, he brought no biases about the school board and the union to the table. At the same time, the governor was able to politically showcase one of his top aides and work to negate the publicity over the salmonella food poisoning crisis last spring.

Reilly was one of the witnesses put under oath to explain why the state had failed to act quickly on the epidemic, which eventually affected about 17,000 people in the Midwest.

A native of Springfield, Reilly, 40, resigned from the General Assembly to join Thompson`s staff as chief counsel in 1983. He was named chief of staff in January, 1984.

He is a graduate of Illinois College in Jacksonville, where he also was an attorney, and the University of Chicago Law School.